Out of curiousity, I just checked out my site in Netscape 4.79.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Sorry to any visitors still using it, but there’s not much I can/will do to make things less traumatic for you. The great irony of this is, YOU CAN’T EVEN READ THIS APOLOGY!!!
Oh, that’s rich.
np – Steve Earle / Jerusalem
Did you know the male platypus has venomous spurs on its ankles? You learn something new every day.
Some fun little site upgrades – I’ve added a nifty little favicon to this site that Netscape/Mozilla users should see in the location bar and IE users will see if they bookmark me… So go on. Bookmark me. It’s for the best, really. I’ve also added a Sitemeter counter so I can keep better track of all you lovely people poking around my site. Don’t worry, I’m a benign Big Brother.
This is turning out to be a very slow, lazy Monday, soundtracked by some very slow, lazy music (Red House Painters, Mojave 3, Slowdive). At least the morning is over – just gotta make it through the afternoon. First band rehearsal in two weeks tonight, my fingers are all tingly in anticipation. No, wait. I just hit my funny bone.
np – Red House Painters / Retrospective Disc 2
As my apartment hunt continues, I’m realizing I’m probably overly-restriced by issues of location. Today I went to see a place right by the Christie Pits (which was *okay*, but not quite enough to get me to pull the trigger), which previously was simply too far to consider but now that I think about it, it’s perfectly close to everything – even moreso than where I am now – but with one exception. The rehearsal space is way out on the east end of town, and every subway stop further west just seems more and more light years away. But there might be a solution to that, but not a quick one. The Rehearsal Factory also runs a space down at Bloor and Richmond, which would be a helluva lot closer to everyone involved. It’s also the most popular and toughest to get a space in, though. When we initially started looking for a space last year, the management company said that spaces rarely opened up there, but that current Rehearsal Factory tenants got first dibs. In fact, that was the original game plan, to get into the Front-Sherbourne space and move to the other space at first opportunity. It’s a little selfish that I didn’t bother inquiring about switching spaces for the past year since it was convenient for me (less so for the others), but now that I am planning to move west, it makes sense to try and take the space with me. I have no idea how long it’ll take to get a new space, if at all, but I believe I will get that particular ball in motion tomorrow. After clearing it with the others, of course. If I take this attitude, then the western limit of my house search can stretch out a few more crucial blocks. I think this is a plan.
I really liked the Christie Pits area, though. I think living very near a great big park (the Pits or Trinity Bellwoods, for example) would suit me just fine.
The Decemberists are a five-piece hailing from Portland who channel the spirit of the Neutral Milk Hotel into some wonderfully creaky and fantastical songs. Their debut album from last year, Castaways and Cutouts, was re-released on Kill Rock Stars last month and their sophomore record Her Majesty The Decemberists is out on September 9th with a tour to follow in October. These guys are great, check em out.
Ang Lee talks about making Hulk.
This is cool for guitar geeks – a pretty exhaustive archive of Husker Du guitar tabs. If you don’t have a small shrine erected to Bob Mould in the corner of your room… well why the hell not?
np – Ted Leo & The Pharmacists / The Tyranny Of Distance
Beautiful beautiful day out today. I have got to find my shorts. Or, failing that, buy some shorts. Either way, pant legs have gots to go. Took an aimless bike ride through the city, swinging by some music stores to look at guitars and keyboards, checked out the big community garage sales at Trinity-Bellwoods and the Little Italy street fair in, uh, Little Italy. Nice to finally be out and riding without a coat and just enjoying the fresh air (or as fresh as air in downtown Toronto gets).
The new long-player from Sloan is entitled Action Pact and hits the streets August 19.
Radiohead tickets go on sale next Saturday at 10AM. I am already trying to delegate the hassles of buying them to others… I figure I’m always the one who has to trek to Rotate or Soundscapes to buy tickets for the smaller shows, someone else can deal with Ticketbastard for the big ones. Quid pro quo.
I am looking at my sidebar and noticing that eight of the ten books I have in my ‘Reading’ list are actually comic books. I actually read books without pictures, too. Really I do. I’m sure I have some around here somewhere…
Don’t go anywhere. I’ll find em.
np – Grandaddy / Sumday
It’s a rare band that can open for itself not once, but four times in the course of a night. Punters showing up late to last night’s sold-out Broken Social Scene / Stars show and passing over the openers missed, essentially, Stars and Broken Social Scene.
Amy Millan from Stars kicked things off with a short countrified set, backed by members of BSS. This was followed by a impressive set by BSS-er Jason Collett, again backed by no less than seven members of BSS and Stars. This was followed up by BSS guitarist Andrew Whiteman’s Apostle Of Hustle project, which looked an awful lot like Jason Collett’s band. As did Feist’s. Did I just see four 15-minute openers or one hour-long set? Don’t know, don’t care, it was all great.
I had seen Stars way back in the summer of 2000, and must admit I wasn’t terribly impressed with their brand of electro-twee pop backed up by canned recordings. After their set last night, I will happily retract that opinion. The addition of a ridiculously strong drummer has done wonders for their sound, as did the addition of a couple of BSS’ guitarists (they had plenty to spare). The result was a surprisingly muscular and energetic show – it seems that Torquil Campbell has learned that Morrisey’s feyness only really worked when backed up by a badass band. Now if he could only learn to be a little less annoying with his stage banter… Regardless, a minor flaw at most.
Lee’s Palace was absolutely packed to the gills by the time Broken Social Scene took the stage as Broken Social Scene. This being their last hometown show before heading out to tour the US, the room was positively crackling with excitement and anticipation, and for the next hour and a half, they proved why they deserve every kudo and accolade that’s been thrown at them since You Forgot It In People‘s release last October. With an on-stage lineup that ranged between seven and ten people at any given time (and at least three guitars at all times!), BSS unloaded massive-sounding versions of most of People, along with some new material and an unexpected cover of Sloan’s “The Other Man”. By the time they closed off the encore with a triumphant version of “Lover’s Spit”, the band was feeding off the energy of the audience and vice-versa in a way that is far too rare. At the risk of sounding horribly cliche, there was love in the air and it was magic.
A particular perk of the show for me, anyway, was being able to connect names and faces with the band. The ever-rotating cast of players makes it difficult to know who on the record plays or sings what, and that’s compounded by the fact that there’s so damn many of them, but it’s still nice to be able to make a visual connection between the band and the record (like “hey – I buy my CDs at Soundscapes from the fourth guitarist!”).
It’s a pretty damn exciting time to be in Toronto, musically speaking. Not only is there a whole crop of excellent bands all around town, but they’re actually getting well-deserved recogintion from the rest of the world. It’s been a long time since there’s been this sort of buzz in the Big Smoke. It’s cool.
There are a whole whack of pictures from the show in my newly-reprogrammed concert photos section.
np – Broken Social Scene / You Forgot It In People
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